NATO's military build-up in Poland is a dangerous and provocative development which might lead to another Cuban Missile Crisis, international law Professor Francis Boyle told RIA Novosti today. Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law.

"This is an extremely dangerous and provocative development in the crisis between the United States and Russia over Ukraine," he said. "It's just another step in the direction, I regret to say, of perhaps a reverse Cuban Missile crisis.

"The United States is using Poland as a cat's paw, here, to further encircle and provoke Russia. The real defense Poland has, as well as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, is non-aggression towards Russia," Boyle said. "And yet we are seeing NATO building up its forces in all four states, which is extremely dangerous. It seems to me the United States and NATO have decided to play some cosmic type of game of chicken with Russia over Ukraine."

Boyle also expressed his opinion that the weekend hostilities in eastern Ukraine, including the Right Sector's mobilized attacks on Russian-speakers, as well as their repeated attempts to take over towns, have been coordinated directly by the Obama Administration. "There is a pattern of behavior here, and I am afraid it will get worse," he said. "In all honesty, I do not see how Russia will be able to tolerate Ukraine under the control and domination of these neo-Nazis thugs in Kiev. This would constitute a threat to Russia," Boyle added.

The NATO brink-of-war strategy was denounced also by Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, who told an interviewer with Il Foglio, "What is the solution, a nuclear war? Nobody wants it, so let us seek a way for negotiations." Sanctions "if used as the only instrument" are a step backwards, she asserted.